Welcome to Gama Aviation

Glass cockpit upgrades

Going ‘glass’ with the Garmin G1000.

The G1000 is a glass cockpit avionics suite designed for OEM or custom retrofit installation on a range of business aircraft. It is a seamlessly integrated package that makes flight information easier to scan and process. Its revolutionary design brings new levels of situational awareness, simplicity and safety to the cockpit.

The Garmin G1000 is the upgrade to your flying experience.

Garmin G1000 glass cockpit

Is it time to evolutionise your flight deck and reinvigorate an older airframe? If you are thinking about it

Still unsure of the value of going glass?

Harry Lees, our principal European avionics consultant has over four decades of experience working across various types. He considers the move to ‘glass’ as an excellent upgrade path for older aircraft, particularly in line with recent mandatory navigation changes. Here’s why…

Many aspects of our lives are now screen based and as such we are seeing an acceleration of this capability within the cockpit. This is driven by a number of factors including aircraft resale value and changing regulatory mandates, but also in the number of flight schools now making the switch to EFIS solutions. Why? Every commercial airline uses them. However there are tangible benefits to be gained, some of which are listed below:

If we take the scenario of upgrading a King Air, an ADS-B Out upgrade may cost in the region of $180,000, however for $400,000 (dependign on options) a full feature G1000NXi can be installed. Combine this with the likely failure or replacement costs of other vital avionics items and the upgrade makes more and more sense.

ADS-B OUT (Automatic Dependant Surveillance – Broadcast) requires that the aircraft transmits its own GPS position via the Mode S transponder, regardless of whether the aircraft is being interrogated by a ground radar or by another aircraft’s TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System). The GPS source must meet high accuracy and integrity requirements only available from a qualified WAAS GPS.

The European airspace mandate for ADS-B OUT is effective from June 2020, and from January 2020 for US airspace operations.

All aircraft with a MTOW of 5700Kg or above, OR a max cruising TAS of 250kts or above at ISA, must comply (the same requirements as the current EHS Mode S transponder mandate). The US has an extended mandate covering smaller General Aviation aircraft depending on their location.